This country is doomed

[HappyFace2025]

While the vote in Gorton and Denton may be described as a 'protest' vote the strength of both the Greens and Reform performance is something to worry all of us not just Labour.

Me too

I do think the Green party is in a massive state of flux right now that isn't fully appreciated. It's an uneasy alliance between two groups which really aren't obvious bedfellows. At some point that leads to crisis as we've seen in other parties both here and abroad. If you don't understand this you are missing a massive potential problem on the horizon.

For all its faults (of which there are an extraordinary amount) Reform do not have the same level of this. They have competing ego issues instead to contend with as well as a variety of people who are scandals waiting to happen. But for the most part I don't see a full on civil war in the same way. I see massive bickering and infighting between individuals instead. But on policy? Not so much to the same extent where it looks like an impossible square to circle.

I don’t think so on his vote. Only Lucy Powell voted the other way.

To be fair, my seven year old asked me what drugs are as his friend at school says he takes them all the time. Perhaps children should be educated about it earlier.
legalising would certainly stop a lot of the county lines gangs. However, I appreciate this needs to be looked at very carefully as it hasn’t worked well in many other countries/states so far

No - if you read the Green Party’s policies, they are communist.

They're not entirely an "independent body" they are self appointed and at no time during when the polling stations were actually open did they actually raise the issue with the electoral staff or the police.

And where do they think those immigrants are going to live? In houses that will be built on the fields and woodland their party is supposed to protect!!!!

My local woods have been hacked down and replaced with two new estates, a massive estate has been built at the other end of the village, and now we’re going to have an extra 400 homes built on the fields in the centre of the village. Judging by the languages spoken, I’d say at least half the people who’ve moved onto those new estates were born outside the U.K.. I used to vote Green because I thought they were the party who’d protect the countryside. In fact, they’re the biggest enemy the countryside could ever have. The sight of that blonde woman dancing and grinning like a brainwashed lunatic was enough for me. I will never vote for them again.

The Scandinavian countries have excellent public services because everyone works and pays taxes. A strange concept to our army of benefit claimants here. Greens think they can have excellent public services by printing more money and taxing ‘the rich’ a policy abandoned everywhere else as it just reduces a countries tax take, not increases.

They have no answers whatsoever to the serious questions facing this country. They are a clown party. Just like reform. Two cheeks of the same arse.

you are not wrong the uk is royally fucked

We need better politics- the Greens offer that. The mains parties have failed. Reform are racists

The strength of the Green vote doesn't bother me in the slightest. I think this is what happens when you take voters for granted. Burnham might have won that seat as well. Labour lost it for themselves.

Can't see any lessons being learned from Starmers response though

So how do you think their long term vision of a world without borders will work out then?

Where will all the houses come from? Just build all over the English countryside, or increase council tax so much that people can only afford to live in tiny boxes?

And are how do you feel about your children and generations to come paying reparations for slavery when they played absolutely no part in the slave trade? Payments that will be going to benefit people who weren’t ever slaves themselves? Where does that end? Should we be demanding reparations from Italy for what the Romans did?

These people are just living in Lala land and have no proper understanding of the real world consequences some of these loony policies can bring.

The only good news is this is a by election where protest votes are common. I think policies of open borders / encouraging migration, self ID and legalising drugs will be scrutinised at a general election. The country would collapse under the greens. Any far left or far right party spells bad news for women.

It's a good thing that both Labour and Conservatives may see that kneejerk dog-whistle politics repel more than they attract. I'd like to think they'd learn from this but they probably won't

I do agree. You’ve written it much better than I could.

The pendulum has swung further and further right, with cronyism and picket lining of politicians getting more and more extreme.

i’m historically centre right but think privatisation of utilities has been an abject disaster we have highest bills and rubbish service. Nationalise I say. Can’t be worse than we have now.

and also the gap between rich and normal has grown so a wealth tax is a way forward. I would welcome ideas for redistribution which weren’t tax based but I don’t have any nor have I heard of any.

The Scandinavian countries have excellent public services because everyone works and pays taxes. A strange concept to our army of benefit claimants here

erm....lots of people 'on benefits' are working. Full time. Paying taxes.

Sweden’s unemployment rate fell to 8.6% in January 2026 from 10.4% in the same month a year earlier. This is higher than the European average. Higher levels of unemployment are on of the things that tends to fuel political unrest and dissent.

I believe the current government is a coalition of a centre right party and a far right populist party

In recent months there been this scandal
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2025/nov/10/sweden-online-hate-anti-immigrant-extremism-women

Everything is working out just great.

@LoftyPlumLion agree. I would say I’m a very moderate voter occ centre left, occ centre right but I’m 100% for nationalising utilities. I can’t believe we don’t own our own water and power it’s crazy!!!

We need proportional representation and not first past the post. Obviously that wouldn't make a difference in a by election but for the general elections that's what we need.
A government that has to reach compromises because it's made up of all the political parties people voted for. And more engagement from voters because they're getting what they voted for and not the party that scrapes through

Except I didn't say any of that but good for you for shoe horning an accusation of
anti-semitism into your reply. The word has been so egregiously abused it's lost it's power to silence people.

Be careful what you wish for. PR in other countries has resulted in some strange paintings. I get why people are fed up with FPTP but PR needs to be carefully assessed.

Only someone who hasn't been subjected to antisemitism could post this.

Scotland has it, Wales has it, Northern Ireland has it and not only that apart from Belarus were the only country in Europe not to have it. And Belarus is such a wonderful example of why fptp should be kept I suppose.

Keep fptp for the commons, replace the house of Lords with a pr elected chamber. Potentially the best of both worlds.